Not Quite Bulletproof
by DubCliq
Summary: Two years later, the Barden Bellas are reunited.
1. Chapter 1

**Not Quite Bulletproof**

Disclaimer: The characters in this story do not belong to me. They belong to Kay Cannon and the producers of Pitch Perfect.

A/N: I haven't decided on the length of this fic, though I have a rough idea about where I want it to go. It won't be more than 5 chapters at most (most likely 3). Ideas are, of course, welcome. Let me know what you think!

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Chloe stepped into the crowded club, her eyes immediately adjusting to the dark room and flashing lights. She allowed herself to be dragged to the bar by an already-tipsy Aubrey, who quickly ordered their group a round of tequila shots. A few more shots later, Chloe found herself sitting at their table alone, with most of the Bellas having disappeared into the throng of undulating bodies. Even Aubrey, who had always shown some restraint, was off somewhere dancing with a muscled blond that had caught her eye.

Chloe bobbed her head to the catchy beat, shaking her head to turn down another offer to dance. She observed the scene, taking note of the huge space that was packed for one of the biggest clubbing events of the year. She was no stranger to the club scene, yet she found herself less and less at ease as song after song played. But who could blame her? After all, this was DJ Becapella's 21st birthday bash – and the first time she would be spinning her music in front of a live audience.

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"_Hey."_

_Beca stayed still, not needing to turn around to know the owner of the voice. _

"_Hey," she murmured, continuing to hug her knees to her chest as she stared at the pool in front of her. She felt the redhead kick off her sandals and sit next to her, dipping her feet in the water._

"_Why aren't you inside celebrating with the rest of us? We won! Because of you!"_

_Beca shrugged._

"_Hey, what's wrong?" Chloe placed a comforting hand on Beca's shoulder._

"_This was fun," the brunette responded._

"_The party? It's not over yet, I think Fat Amy's giving Benji a lap dance," Chloe said, smiling at Beca, who shook her head in response._

"_The Bellas. College. I was so sure college wasn't right for me. That I wouldn't fit in. I thought…" She hesitated. "I thought it would be easy… to leave."_

_The senior furrowed her brows, not understanding. "Leave?"_

_Beca turned, finally meeting her eyes._

"_Remember spring break, when my manager let me play my music?"_

_Chloe's face brightened at the memory._

"_Yup, you played really good mixes. Tuning in kept me sane when I was recovering after my surgery…" She trailed off, her cheeks turning a slight tinge of pink._

_Beca gave her a small smile._

"_Someone contacted me – a talent agent from a recording company in LA. They want to sign me on to work on the arrangements of some songs."_

"_That's awesome! I knew you'd—"_

"_They want me there to do a couple of demos as soon as possible. My flight leaves tomorrow morning."_

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Despite her apprehension, Chloe couldn't help but feel her heart leap at the thought of seeing the brunette again, even if she probably wouldn't even get to talk to her. She had watched every interview and read every article and tabloid she could find on the girl, following the Beca's rise to fame. She had bought and listened to every mix she made and every song she had collaborated on with another artist, the songs practically taking up all of the spots on the Top 25 Most Played playlist in her iPod. She had tuned in every time DJ Becapella made a special appearance on the radio waves.

She tried to tell herself that she had grown to see the younger Bellas as her family and that she just genuinely wanted to see them do well. But not even Cynthia Rose's brief stint as a backup singer for Beyonce got her this excited.

She had needed a lot of convincing before agreeing to come. Aubrey had somehow not only gotten the Bellas on the guest list, but also managed to score them one of the VIP tables, which must have cost her a fortune. She was surprised that the blonde had suggested they have a Bellas reunion at the event. After all, Aubrey and Beca had never really been friends despite making peace for the ICCA finals, and Aubrey had never mentioned keeping in touch with her. In fact, none of the Bellas had heard from Beca in a while.

The Bellas had tried to keep in touch through email after that school year, but eventually, life happened and everyone got busy with their own classes and work and social life during the summer. As the new school year began, the non-returning members found it harder to consistently keep in touch with the returning members, with new members recruited and not having practices together anymore. So it wasn't Beca's fault for disappearing, really. She had never been the talkative type – even if she had been the one to urge the group to open up to each other. Beca always needed a bit of a push to talk about herself.

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"_Tomorrow? Were you ever going to tell us?" Chloe hadn't heard her voice this high pitched since her surgery. She felt her dread quickly being replaced by anger._

"_I'm telling you now, Chlo—"_

"_You're telling me because I came out here and asked you! What, was I supposed to just find out when you don't show up at my graduation in two days?"_

"_What? Of course not! I would've—I just didn't get the chance to—I ordered flowers for you… I er, for you and Aubrey."_

_There was a tense silence between the two for a brief moment, but Chloe found her anger dissipating as she saw how truly bummed the younger girl was._

"_I'm sorry," the brunette mumbled, looking down. "You know I really want to be there."_

"_It's okay," Chloe sighed, still feeling disappointed. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, I get it. I just wish you didn't have to leave so soon."_

"_Me too."_

"_I'm going to miss you."_

_Beca's eyes snapped up to Chloe, who was looking at her intently._

"_I'm going to miss you too," she mumbled back. "Thanks for… taking a chance on me. For pushing me to join. It made my year."_

_Chloe smiled in response, not taking her eyes off Beca's. She couldn't deny that she had a soft spot for the girl, though she couldn't explain why. Something about the younger girl drew her in – maybe it was her raw talent, or her stubbornness and drive. Or maybe it was her witty sarcasm, or the way she always wanted to test the boundaries and think outside the box. _

_Or it could really just be that she had seen her naked…and enjoyed it a little. Because truthfully, Chloe was not as confident as she made herself out to be. She did not know what had possessed her to spy on the new girl or even pull the shower curtain that night – all she knew was that she was determined to recruit the best for the Bellas in order to win a championship before graduation. She had wanted to come off as the cool, confident, sexy senior and impress the alt freshman, but most likely ended up weirding her out. _

_In her defense, it was Beca's fault. Because damn, why did she have to be singing her lady jam of all songs? And with that voice. Maybe it was what spurred her to her act of spontaneity. And god, when they harmonized to that song for those few seconds – she could swear she got wetter than she did with an entire hour of foreplay with her boy toy. _

_So maybe it hadn't been him she was thinking about that night._

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Chloe was distracted from her thoughts as a deep voice interrupted the music.

"Alright, alright, guys, let's give a round of applause to DJ Nikko, who's been entertaining all of you and getting you pumped for the main event!"

The crowd erupted into applause and cheers, and the man stopped to wait for it to die down before continuing.

"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! It's two minutes 'til midnight and all you lucky bitches get to celebrate DJ Becapella's 21st birthday and live debut! So you better put your fuckin' hands together and make some noise for DEEJAAAAAY BECAPELLAAAA!"

The crowd grew even wilder at the announcement– if that was possible – as a familiar brunette stepped out, dressed in skinny jeans and a simple v-neck t-shirt with her signature headphones around her neck. Chloe felt her breath hitch as she watched the girl – no – the woman, smile confidently at the crowd, grabbing the microphone.

"WHAT'S UP, LA? HOW'S EVERYONE DOING TONIGHT?"

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	2. Chapter 2A

**Not Quite Bulletproof**

Disclaimer: The characters in this story do not belong to me. They belong to Kay Cannon and the producers of Pitch Perfect.

A/N: Here's chapter 2A! I decided to change the title because there was already a fic with the old title. Please let me know if you would be interested if this fic were extended beyond the original planned 3 chapters.

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Chloe stood frozen, staring at the woman behind the DJ booth, entranced at the way the brunette seemed to be in her own world, yet right there with the rest of the crowd. Beca played her set effortlessly, bobbing her head with a small smile on her face as she fiddled with the buttons and knobs in front of her. Chloe thought she had never looked more beautiful. It seemed that, despite being guarded with the people closest to her, it was when she was spinning those beats that Beca felt free to show herself, even to an entire room of strangers.

Chloe couldn't exactly remember what else they had talked about that night before Beca left. She thinks it was probably about her plans after graduation. She vaguely remembered telling Beca about her job offer as an assistant account executive at a PR firm in New York. She had gotten an apartment with Aubrey, who would be making the big move with her. The blonde had secured a paid internship with Cosmopolitan. The two had planned this since becoming fast friends their freshman year.

Chloe had been telling everyone her post-graduation plans for a while. As a senior, it was a question she was frequently asked. So it was pretty easy to go through the motions and recite the words like a script while thinking about how much she was going to miss the girl sitting next to her. It scared her a bit – throughout her college years, Aubrey had been her constant, and she had been used to her circle of friends changing every time members of the Bellas graduated and new ones were recruited. She told herself that it was because the Bellas had gone through so much more that year, and that, as one of the co-leaders that year, she had been much more invested than the other three years she was in the acapella group.

But it really didn't matter if they had been talking about their plans. After all, they had lost touch quickly afterwards. Being 3,000 miles apart with demanding jobs and a new circle of friends definitely made it difficult to find the time to talk regularly. The thought made her sad, because she didn't like to think that they were only friends because they had the Bellas in common.

Of course, the reason they lost touch could have been for a different reason. It could have been that, whatever it was they had been talking about, they had somehow ended up sitting much closer than they thought. And that by the time they had realized how close they were, they couldn't pull away from each other.

And despite having been able to keep her cool standing naked in front of an alarmed (then weirded out) Beca, Chloe felt her face heat up and her heart start beating erratically in that moment of realization. She hadn't had much to drink that night, but in that moment she felt herself sober up abruptly. Because right then, she felt Beca looking at her for the first time, just really _looking at her_. No nakedness or awkwardness to distract, no Aubrey next to her, no Bellas around them.

_She wished they had kissed._

That's right, they didn't. They had fallen victim to the age-old clichéd '_interrupted as they were about to kiss'_ storyline. Yup. Because at that moment, her stupid flavor of the week, Brody or Brock – or was it Brian? – had stumbled outside, drunk as fuck, and smiled dumbly at the two, completely unaware of what he had just ruined.

"_That's hot."_

And with those two words, the two girls sprang apart, as if _really_ realizing what had almost happened, the redhead running over to call her _boyfriend_ a dumbass and dragging him back inside. And when she had returned barely five minutes later, the brunette had disappeared.

She had texted and called multiple times that night, but Beca never picked up or responded. So she had faked feeling sick and gone back to her room to process what had happened. It hadn't occurred to her until the next day that she didn't know when Beca's flight was. And since the younger girl hadn't told anyone but her about her plans, no one knew either. By the time Chloe had gone to Beca's father's house to check, the brunette had already left for LA.

Beca had sent the Bellas a mass text later that day, apologizing for not being able to say goodbye and that she had landed safely. She had said that she wasn't very good with goodbyes, so instead she was going to say good luck, and that she knew the Bellas would continue to kick ass without her the next year. She didn't promise to visit, because she didn't make promises she couldn't keep.

Cynthia Rose had been the most vocal about being pissed off that Beca had left the way she did. But when she received the Bellas' tuner in the mail, she knew they had an understanding. After all, if it was anything they both understood best, it was ambition. And when the Bellas first heard the name _DJ Becapella_ on the radio, they knew that it was the brunette's way of telling them she had cared more than she let on.

On their graduation day, Aubrey and Chloe each received a bouquet of flowers from Beca.


End file.
